LAS VEGAS—For the first thirty minutes Saturday night, Wisconsin's offense looked far from crisp. Despite rolling up yards, two turnovers put a damper on scoring and directly lead to both Rebel touchdowns in the half.
But then came the third quarter and Wisconsin found its groove.
The No.12 Badgers held a 24-0 edge in the period en route to a 41-21 victory over UNLV. In desert heat that reached 97 degrees at kickoff, 31,107 watched the Wisconsin running backs blow the game open and keep head coach Bret Bielema perfect in five season openers.
Afterward the coaches and players felt the game represented a learning experience in surviving and overcoming difficult game situations.
""I told the guys on Thursday, one thing we can't simulate in practice is adversity,"" Bielema said. ""At halftime we're sitting in a ball game that I thought we were really pretty dominant but two plays take away from that effect.""
Wisconsin only led by three after two quarters, but junior safety Aaron Henry spoiled the first Rebel possession of the third by recovering a fumble (forced by junior defensive end J.J. Watt) and taking it 20 yards for a score. Then the running combination of junior John Clay, sophomore Montee Ball and freshman James White took control behind strong play from the offensive line. The trio combined for 143 yards and two touchdowns in the third.
Wisconsin scored on all three of its offensive possessions in the period and finished with 278 rushing yards on 50 carries for the evening.
""Everybody can produce when they get in the game,"" Clay, who finished with 123 yards, said of his fellow runners. ""So it's not that any steps are going to be missed when any one of us is in there.""
""I think all of them are really selfless players, they cheer for each other,"" Bielema said, noting that Clay was a bit under the weather for the game.
UNLV added one more touchdown early in the fourth, a nine-yard pass from senior quarterback Omar Clayton to freshman wide recover Irshad Stolden.
The UW attack rolled up 279 yards at the halfway point but only had 17 points to show for it after the pair of giveaways.
Senior quarterback Scott Tolzien's third pass of the night, intended for junior receiver Nick Toon, was jumped by junior corner Will Chandler, who raced 16 yards to the end zone to cut a 14-0 Wisconsin lead in half.
Toon again played a role in the next Badger giveaway when he fumbled the ball on the UNLV one-yard line. Chandler grabbed the ball and carried it 82 yards to set up a 16-yard touchdown pass that left Wisconsin up three heading into the half.
Bielema said that he and offensive coordinater Paul Chryst had some strong words during the break and the players took that message to heart.
""We were beating ourselves plain and simple,"" Tolzien said. ""We were moving the ball and shooting ourselves in the foot … good teams don't do that.""
But the lesson from those plays was simple as well.
""As hard as it is do you've just got to put it behind you,"" Tolzien said. ""Because trying to overcompensate for that is not going to do any good. So you've really, truly got to put if behind you and then when the game's over you can go back and figure out what went wrong.""
The experience of this game, however, is something Bielema hopes his team can carry forward into the season.
""To go through the way we did and to be 17-14 at the half is just going to be incredible teaching,"" he said. ""It's so much better than being what ever it should have been, 24-7 or even 31-0. It's better it happened this way.""
